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Administrative history

The 48th Battalion C.E.F. Association was formed in Vancouver in 1936 by members of the 48th Battalion (3rd Canadian Pioneers). The men had been holding reunion dinners at the Hotel Georgia in Vancouver from 1933. In 1948 a Victoria branch was formed and a reunion dinner was held on June 26th commemorating the day of departure of the Battalion in 1915. Annual dinners were held in Victoria thereafter on the Saturday closest to June 25th. In 1953 a bronze plaque memorial was placed in the Parliament Buildings in Victoria and an unveiling ceremony took place on November 11, 1953. A ceremony before the plaque took place in the June of each year, the day before the reunion dinner. By 1977, after the death of long time Association secretary Al La Fortune and all but three remaining members, the current president Frank Hayward began to wind up the affairs of the Vancouver branch of the Association. The Victoria branch had about six surving members by this time and were also winding up. The association records were sent to the Victoria branch around 1980.

Custodial history

The records were donated in 1986 by A. Harold Bromley, one of the last surviving members of the Association.

Scope and content

The fonds consists of the records of the 48th Battalion, C.E.F., Association and includes correspondence, newsletters, programs and financial information from 1936 to 1980. Most of these records were created by the Association's Vancouver branch secretary, Al La Fortune. The fonds also includes a photograph album created by La Fortune between 1915 and 1959 which shows members of the 48th Battalion (3rd Pioneer Battalion) at the Willows training camp in Victoria, going overseas, in England and at Vimy in France. The album also has photographs of the Association getting together for their reunions in Victoria from 1947 to 1959.